Your comment: “It is as if the Catholic hierarchy and Church are claiming that they are EQUAL TO Christ. Oh my gosh!”
Again the negative specious comments that you make but can’t back up.
Sorry. My apologies.
Only Christ can offer salvation. Certainly others can teach, but they cannot offer salvation. And they can only teach as long as they don’t embellish (and ultimately corrupt) the Word in any way.
The relationship between God and the believer is a private and very personal one. All of the ritual and dogma is just fluff designed to give individuals power.